Ant Intl explores stablecoin issuance. Strikes Deutsche Bank tokenized deposit deal – Ledger Insights

Ant International, the global payments firm that owns Alipay+, announced a partnership with Deutsche Bank today that suggests the company is considering issuing its own stablecoin. The deal, which also covers tokenized deposits for cross border payments, makes Deutsche Bank the first German bank to integrate with the blockchain based treasury platform, Ant Whale. Last year Ant International was spun off from Ant Group, the owner of the Chinese payments giant Alipay.

The partnership will see the two companies “look into the application of stablecoins for global payments, including real time cross border treasury management for Ant’s entities, reserve management and on-ramp and off-ramp services,” according to Ant’s statement. The inclusion of “reserve management” is particularly telling – stablecoin issuers typically need banks to help manage the government securities and cash reserves that back their digital currencies.

While Ant didn’t explicitly confirm plans to launch its own stablecoin, companies that simply use existing stablecoins don’t typically require reserve management services. The wording suggests Ant’s exploration goes beyond merely adopting third party digital currencies. The company didn’t respond to requests for clarification, and the wording indicates the work remains at an early stage.

For context, stablecoins are digital currencies pegged to traditional assets like the US dollar, designed to avoid cryptocurrency volatility. They’ve become increasingly popular for cross border payments due to their speed and lower costs compared to traditional banking, particularly in emerging markets.

Such a move would align with broader industry trends. Ant International operates payment and merchant services worldwide, particularly across Asia, where its Alipay+ brand serves over 100 million merchants. The company resembles Stripe in its business model but with a bigger client facing role and stronger Asian market penetration – and Stripe has embraced stablecoins extensively, recently offering stablecoin accounts to companies in emerging markets.

The main Ant International stablecoin activities we’re aware of is a partnership with Singapore stablecoin issuer StraitsX last year, to support Singapore’s purpose bound money experiments. If it were to become an issuer, it may require licenses in various jurisdictions. Alipay Merchant Services PTE has a Singapore major payment institution license, but not for digital payment tokens.

Ant comes full circle

The stablecoin exploration marks an interesting development given Ant’s history with digital currency. In 2020, founder Jack Ma’s speech about digital currency and financial innovation contributed to the cancellation of what would have been the world’s largest IPO. Ma had argued for building “a digital currency based on technology that can withstand the test of time” for global trade. These latest moves involve Ant International rather than its domestic Chinese operations.

Ant Intl, Deutsche Bank partner for tokenized deposits

Coming back to today’s Ant statement regarding Deutsche Bank, it covered various other activities, including tokenized deposits. “In addition, the two sides will also explore cross border payment innovations, including tokenised bank deposits, stablecoin and Ant International’s Falcon TST FX Model, to help Ant International and its clients reduce FX-related cost and risks,” the company said.

Apart from exploring stablecoins, Deutsche Bank has become the first German bank to integrate with Ant International’s Whale DLT platform for group treasury. Using the blockchain based system, Ant moves money around the world in real time, ensuring it has the right currency in place at the right time. By the end of last year it covered ten currencies and around a third of the group’s global treasury money movements. Last month when HSBC launched its tokenized deposit solution in Hong Kong, Ant International was the first client. Other Whale integrations include DBS, Standard Chartered and OCBC in Singapore, BNP Paribas in France and JP Morgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments (formerly JPM Coin) which supports USD, EUR and GBP.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Deutsche Bank was exploring tokenized deposits last week, although we outlined various existing initiatives the bank has already participated in.

While Ant International’s stablecoin ambitions remain unconfirmed, its expanding blockchain partnerships suggest the company is building infrastructure for whatever digital asset strategy emerges. The Deutsche Bank deal positions Ant to move quickly when – or if – it decides to make its move.

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}